Friday, October 22, 2010

blueberry crumb bar

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           


 











I'm on a" bake high" lately. This was what consumed my thoughts as I was making  mini cheesecake bite  last eve. My latest sugar fix was the cranberry crumb bar from Dunkin Donuts. As much as I love how moist & crazily delicious dried cranberries were, I am partial towards my favourite berry to bake: blue berries.
A quick check of the pantry to make sure I had all the ingredients on hand, a nod of approval from my kids( with the cake, cheesecake, frosting & stuff, I surely needed the extra sets of hands) a quick trip to attic hunting for my fluted pan later, I was all set to make this for the upcoming party this weekend. What better way than to share, my latest craze as I absolutely don't want to indulge in a tray full of 'hard to resist' goodies alone. Since 'hips definitely don't lie', use your judgement while indulging in more than 2.

Filling:
5 cups blueberries ( fresh, frozen, canned- any)
3/4 cup sugar (brown)
Zest and juice of one lime
2 tsp cornstarch

Crumb:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 sticks unsalted butter, cold
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 inch pan. Mine was a fluted side pan so I used a pastry brush to grease butter to get every nook of the dents smothered with butter. You can easily grease the regular Pyrex glass dish with a paper towel.

In a medium bowl,mix in all the ingredients listed under 'crumb'. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly which is what we want ( resist the urge to make a smooth powdered crumb). Pat half of dough into the prepared pan. Save the second half for the topping.

Seperately, mix together sugar, cornstarch and lime juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Spread the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer. Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown, whichever comes first.
Cool completely before cutting into squares.
Makes 36 decent sized squares or rectangular 18 bar.

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